Sorry to break it to all the romantics, but modern science says love is just neurotransmitters mingling and hormones like dopamine, oxytocin, serotonin, and adrenaline attacking your heart at once!
Though we expect Medievels to be quite radical, romantic, and detached from scientific reasoning, the truth is, however, they regarded Love sickness as a disease. Perhaps they might have regarded Romeo and Juliet as two hormone-driven teenagers( Juliet was only thirteen and Romeo was eighteen) whose five-day affair caused six deaths.
The connection between love and physical affliction was made long ago. In medieval medicine, the body and soul were closely intertwined – the body, it was thought, could reflect the state of the soul. Medieval Physicians believed that Health revolved around the four Humours- black bile, yellow bile, phlegm, and blood, the imbalance of which would cause diseases and disorders. The 11th-century physician and monk Constantine the African translated a widely-read treatise on melancholia that circulated throughout medieval Europe. Melancholia or depression was believed to be a result of excess black bile. He drew its connection with Lovesickness:
The love that is also called ‘eros’ is a disease touching the brain … Sometimes, the cause of this love is an intense natural need to expel a great excess of humor… this illness causes thoughts and worries as the afflicted person seeks to find and possess what they desire.
Later, Gerard of Berry came up with new additions to this theory, suggesting that Lovesickness was due to fixation on beauty and desire.
There were specific treatments to cure ‘Love,’ including exposure to light, gardens, calm and rest, inhalations, and warm baths with moistening plants such as water lilies and violets. A diet of lamb, lettuce, eggs, fish, and ripe fruit was recommended, and the root of hellebore was employed from the days of Hippocrates as a cure. The excessive black bile of melancholia was treated with purgatives, laxatives, and phlebotomy (blood-letting) to rebalance the humours.
People often blamed love sickness on love potions or demons, while the ancient Nahua in Mexico thought it came from the evil eye. If left untreated, lovesickness could have serious consequences, like losing one’s genitals, death, or even eternal damnation. Treatments were creative and varied, including herbal remedies, advice to have sex, and even drinking water boiled with the underwear of the person they desired. (my hands are trembling as I type this)
Love was believed to be a ‘fatal disease,’ perhaps under the influence of several pieces of literature and accounts of famous physicians. One such account is of the physician Erasistratus, who is called to the bedside of Prince Antiochus, who is terminally ill. After a series of unsuccessful diagnoses, Erasistratus feels Antiochus’ wrist; he realizes that the prince’s pulse quickens, and he becomes flushed when his stepmother Stratonice enters the room. Once he realized that Antiochus was suffering from Lovesickness, he asked his father to give his wife to his son.
In addition to such accounts, there were grand literary pieces centered around the dilemma of Lovers, such as The entirety of John Gower’s 14th-century poem, Confessio Amantis (The Lover’s Confession), which was framed around a melancholic lover who complains to Venus and Cupid that he is sick with love to the point that he desires death, and requires a medicine (which he has yet to find) to be cured.
The lover in Confessio Amantis does, finally, receive a cure from Venus. Seeing his dire condition, she produces a cold “oignement” and anoints his “wounded herte,” his temples, and his kidneys. Through this medicinal treatment, the “fyri peine” (fiery pain) of his love is dampened, and he is cured.
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